UCOL one of only four polytechs around country to post profit

Dr Jerry Shearman said UCOL made some tough decision over courses on offer in 2016 and that meant the business was doing well now in a tough environment.

The Universal College of Learning says it is one of just four polytechnics in the country to post a surplus in their annual report this year.

For 2017 UCOL posted a surplus of $480,000, which its chairman Malcolm Inglis described as an excellent achievement in a tough environment for polytechnics.

A number of larger polytechnics have posted deficits for 2017, such as Auckland's Unitec with a deficit of more than $31m.

In February a Cabinet paper stated the majority of the country's polytechnics and institutes of technology would be in deficit by the year 2022.

In light of that an executive director at UCOL, Dr Jerry Shearman, said the Palmerston North based polytechnic had performed very well to maintain a surplus.

"In terms of our numbers we've returned a modest profit," he said.

"I think we're one of about four polytechs that's returned a surplus over that period.

"We performed very strongly compared to regional polytechs in New Zealand."

Shearman said the surplus was down to good planning in 2016 and taking direction from important local stakeholders.

That meant UCOL was able to drop courses that weren't doing well and put more resources into areas the polytechnic was doing well in.

"We're sort of ahead of the game in that respect.

"We've had a really good collaborative approach with our partners ... we've had really great engagement with people like the Whanganui District Council.

"We've grown our numbers in nursing and health because there is strong support from the Whanganui DHB and other local providers."

Shearman said UCOL was "really, really happy" with the numbers of students enrolling in Whanganui.

UCOL now has more than 1000 students at its Whanganui campus and this year the organisation celebrates being in its new campus for 10 years.

The number of fulltime international students enrolled at UCOL dropped by 18 per cent from 2016.

UCOL had a slight drop of 0.9 per cent in the number of fulltime domestic students across its five campuses.